Consider Your Audience

During some downtime in a recent worship/tech rehearsal, the video director began practicing his language skills in Spanish. Unfortunately, none of the cameramen speak or understand Spanish. Although one cameraman is fluent in both French and English, he still could not follow the directions being given.

Minimal skills in this language were insufficient. Although our camera operators understood “uno” “dos” and “tres”, this did not help much. Camera one was aware that he was being spoken to when he heard the word “uno”. Yet being meticulous to listen as carefully as he could, he had no clue as to the direction being given to him. The use of an unfamiliar language rendered the message useless.

Do we ever come across to those around us as though we are speaking a foreign language? Terminology that may make perfect sense to another believer may have absolutely no meaning to someone who is not familiar with the Bible. A statement such as, “being saved by the blood” may provoke these questions. “Saved from what?” and “What does blood have to do with it?” We must speak and present the gospel using words and phrases that are understandable to those we are speaking to.

When we are talking to those who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ and a knowledge of the Word of God, we must not assume they will understand terminology that comes from the Bible. We must converse with others in a manner which they can understand. The Apostle Paul crafted his lifestyle and speech, becoming like those to whom he was speaking. He stated, “I have [in short] become all things to all men, that I might by all means (At all costs and in any and every way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ].” (1 Corinthians 9:22b AMP) Clearly the message we speak is worth nothing if the hearer cannot understand our words.

Jesus presented the best example of this. Although He is God, He became man to live among those He desired to reach. “And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.” (John 1:14 AMP) Living among people made the message of God’s love for man clear. Those who knew Jesus best, because they lived with and learned from Him, could then share that message with others. “What we have seen and [ourselves] heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And [this] fellowship that we have [which is a distinguishing mark of Christians] is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah).” (1 John 1:3 AMP)

Jesus not only desired to communicate verbally with mankind. He came as man to experience the limitation of living in this physical body. By living out each day, just as we do, His message held a new relevance. “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.” (Hebrews 4:15 AMP)  By battling temptation and weakness, yet not submitting to sin, Jesus provided hope that we also can overcome temptation. We are given this encouragement. “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” (Hebrews 4:16 AMP) This boldness comes from our relationship with a God who loved us enough to come as one of us.

Jesus lived a life of grace and mercy before us so that we could learn not only to receive grace and mercy but also to extend them to others. We also must communicate from a common ground with others to extend this same grace and mercy. Only then will others know the authenticity of your words and actions. They will be able to receive what we offer. Communicating both our struggles and our victories will build mutual understanding and the love of God that we have received can be conveyed to others.
When practice resumed the director returned to giving guidance in English. In order to have the camera shots that he desired from each operator, he spoke a language they understood. We also need to speak the language of our audience in order to communicate God’s love to them.

Consider your audience as you share the love of Jesus with others. Speak from the heart so all will understand and receive His love.